I'm sure the McLaren team will be the
first to admit that their start to the 2014 season could have gone
better especially as they have the advantage of the best powerunit on
the grid. It's not all about the powerunit though and their rival
Mercedes has clearly done a better job of the catering the whole
package including the aero side to the 2014 regulations.

For Barcelona the team arrived with new
components to try and close the gap to the front but with a deficit
of around 1-1.5 seconds to the Mercedes any upgrades they bring would
need to find around 2 seconds per lap, a monumental amount of time to
find.

In terms of minor adjustments, teams
will make small amendments to their brake ducts at each race, by and
large to affect the performance/temperature of the brakes.
Occasionally though we'll see them make a step change in how they
approach the winglets that adorn the brake ducts though to leverage a
particular type of aerodynamic condition. For Barcelona, McLaren had
amendments to the front and rear brake ducts with the front brake
duct fin shaped with a much larger curve. This curve means the top
section of the duct protects that section of tyre and will therefore
influence the way airflow moves around the tyre, influencing the wake
too. The way in which the fin is moved away from the tyres edge
lower down invites more airflow into that portion of the brake duct
indicating that they're shifting their attention away from how the
airflow enters one portion of the brake fairing onto another. Air
flows around many pathways in a modern brake assembly due to the way
all the components are faired in to reduce the negative effects of an
open assembly. Pipework transports airflow around the discs,
calipers and is also blown laterally out through the wheels
themselves to mitigate any unwanted airflow effects as the airflow
from the front wing is pushed around the front tyre. Sometimes slots
are left open or covered on the 'caketin' depending on how much heat
wants to be transferred via the rim to the tyres and so is hugely driver and
circuit dependent.

At the rear of the car we can see that
the array of winglets usually surrounding the front inner edge of the
rear wheel were abandoned in Barcelona leaving only the brake scoops
exposed to collate and distribute the airflow to the rear brakes.

Tagged

Written by Matthew 'SomersF1' Somerfield

Formula One is a sport that pushes technological boundaries, with the pace of the changes to the cars as swift as the laptimes. This blog looks to keep you upto speed with these alterations.